Recordings & Info: Child 11. The Cruel Brother; Roud 26
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Ballad Index
3) Folk Index
4) Child Collection Index
5) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud Index No. 26: The Cruel Brother (76 listings)
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Alternative Titles:
The Three Knights
The Three Maids
As Three Maids Played at ball
Flowers in the Valley
Fine Flowers in the Valley
Brother's Revenge
Oh Lily O
Lily O
Three Ladies Played at Ball
The Cruel Brother
The Stabbed Sister
The Rose Smells Sae Sweetly
The Brides Murder (Patrick Gainer)
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The Ballad Index- Cruel Brother, The [Child 11]
DESCRIPTION: A man and woman agree to wed, but fail to ask her brother's permission. As the woman prepares for the wedding, her brother stabs her. She does not name her murderer, but reveals the facts in the terms of her will.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: murder brother marriage jealousy revenge lastwill
FOUND IN: Britain(England (West),Scotland) Ireland US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Child 11, "The Cruel Brother" (14 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 11, "The Cruel Brother" (10 versions)
GordonBrown/Rieuwerts, pp. 235-237, "Cruel Brother Or The Bride's Testament" (1 text)
Lyle-Crawfurd1 54, "The Rose Smells Sae Sweetly" (1 text)
Lyle-Crawfurd2 114, "The Rosie Smell'd Sae Sweetlie"; Lyle-Crawfurd2 135, "Fine Flowers in the Vale O" (2 texts)
SharpAp 6 "The Cruel Brother" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #3, #4}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 431-433, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 171-174, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 5, "The Cruel Brother" (2 texts)
Leach, pp. 78-81, "The Cruel Brother" (2 texts)
OBB 64, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 175, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
PBB 32, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
Niles 8, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gummere, pp. 185-187+344, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 8, pp. 21-23, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
DT 11, CRUELBRO*
Roud #26
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Brother's Revenge
Oh Lily O
Lily O
Three Ladies Played at Ball
The Stabbed Sister
NOTES: Flanders, in her notes in Ancient Ballads, observes that some scholars have seen the possibility of an incest motif in this song. Possible, of course, since the brother's extreme rage seems unreasonable. But the only real evidence is the last will scene, found in the incest ballad of "Lizzie Wan" -- but *not*, we note, in "Sheathe and Knife," nor is the last will scene in Lord Randall in any way linked with incest. - RBW
Compare the first verse lines of Child 10.H to Opie-Oxford2 479, "There were three sisters in a hall" (earliest date in Opie-Oxford2 is c.1630)
Child 10.H: "There were three sisters lived in a hall, ... And there came a lord to court them all...."
Opie-Oxford2 479 is a riddle beginning "There were three sisters in a hall, There came a knight amongst them all ...." - BS
This item is also found as Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #702, p. 275, but this appears to be simply a greeting rhyme unrelated to the various rather murderous ballads (notably Child 10 and 11) using these lines. Nonetheless the lyric may have been borrowed, since the Opies derive it from Sloane MS. 1489, which must date from the seventeenth century if not earlier (the Opies say 1630. Note that this MS. should not be confused with the famous Sloane MS. 2593, which contains many of the earliest English proto-ballad lyrics). - RBW
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Keefer's Folk Index- The Cruel Brother [Ch 11]
Pound, Louise (ed.) / American Ballads and Songs, Scribner, Sof (1972/1922), p 21/# 8 [1915ca]
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p175
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), P 78
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p 79
Leach, MacEdward / The Heritage Book of Ballads, Heritage, Bk (1967), p 20
Cowan, Debra. Dad's Dinner Pail. Songs from the Helen Hartness Flanders Coll.., Falling Mountain FM 1044, CD (2005), trk# 4
Fisher, Archie. Man with a Rhyme, Folk Legacy FSS 061, LP (1976), trk# B.05
Holcolm, Granny. Niles, John Jacob / Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, Bramhall House, Bk (1961), p 55/N 8 [1932/07] (Brother's Revenge)
House, Hester. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p 36/# 6A [1916/09/15]
Seeger, Peggy. Blood and Roses, Vol. 2, Blackthorne ESB 80, LP (1979ca), trk# B.04
Summers, Andrew Rowan. Unquiet Grave, Folkways FA 2364/FP 64, LP (1951), trk# B.01
Williams, Julie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p 37/# 6B [1917/07/27]
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Child Collection Index
011 Alan Stivell An Try Marrak (The Three Knights) Un Dewezh Barzh Ger [Journée a la Maison] [A Homecoming] 1978 5:47 Yes
011 Andrew Rowan Summers The Cruel Brother The Unquiet Grave and Other American Tragic Ballads 1951 5:16 Yes
011 Archie Fisher The Cruel Brother The Man with a Rhyme 1997 5:41 Yes
011 Asonance Bratrova Pomsta (Brother’s Revenge) Jestráb 2006 4:43 Yes
011 Asonance Bratrova Pomsta (Brother's Revenge) 30 Let Na Pódiu 2008
No
011 Battlefield Band The Cruel Brother Battlefield Band 1994 5:25 Yes
011 Battlefield Band The Cruel Brother Opening Moves 1993 5:24 Yes
011 Bell Duncan The Cruel Brother The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955
No
011 Bobby Watt The Cruel Brother C'est Watt 1994 4:58 Yes
011 Bobby Watt Cruel Brother Mariposa '96 - A Collection of Songs of Artists Appearing at the 1996 Mariposa Music Festival 1996
No
011 Bruce Greene & Kore Loy McWhirter O, Lily-O Come Near My Love - Mostly Quiet & Dark Songs 2006
No
011 Cyril Tawney The Three Knights The Outlandish Knight 1969 4:34 Yes
011 Dalla Three Knights + An Vug E'n Loor More Salt! 2006 8:35 Yes
011 David Jones The Three Knights Easy and Slow 1975 4:57 Yes
011 Debra Cowan & Michael DeLalla Cruel Brother Dad's Dinner Pail and Other Songs from the Helen Hartness Flanders Collection 2005 5:32 Yes
011 Dick Gaughan The Cruel Brother Prentice Piece 2002 5:40 Yes
011 Dick Gaughan The Cruel Brother Sandy Bell's Ceilidh 2006 5:29 Yes
011 Edith Ballinger Price Three Ladies Played at Ball The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection
No
011 Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson The Rose and the Lily (The Cruel Brother) Gift 2010 6:18 Yes
011 Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger The Cruel Brother Blood and Roses - Vol. 2 1981 6:55 Yes
011 Five Hand Reel The Cruel Brother For A'That 1977 4:47 Yes
011 Five Hand Reel The Cruel Brother The Collection 1997 4:47 Yes
011 Five Hand Reel The Cruel Brother Five Hand Reel + For A' That + Earl O' Moray 2007 4:47 Yes
011 Jim Wearne Three Knights Pysk, Cober ha Sten 2010
No
011 John Jacob Niles Brother's Revenge The Ballads of John Jacob Niles 1960 6:05 Yes
011 John Jacob Niles The Cruel Brother 50th Anniversary Album 1956
No
011 Katherine Campbell The Cruel Brother The Songs of Amelia and Jane Harris - Scots Songs and Ballads from Perthshire Tradition 2004 5:40 Yes
011 Lisa Knapp Three Knights What the Folk, Vol. 2 2008
No
011 Maeve Mackinnon The Cruel Brother Don't Sing Lovesongs 2007 5:39 Yes
011 Martin Simpson The Cruel Bother Kind Letters 2005 5:03 Yes
011 Patrick Ward Gainer The Bride's Murder Child Ballads of West Virginia
7:08 Yes
011 Polly Johnson The Three Maids (Cruel Brother) Virginia Traditions - Ballads from British Tradition 1993 3:38 Yes
011 Sol Invictus There Did Three Knights Come from the West The Devil's Steed 2005
No
011 Tempest Cruel Brother 15th Anniversary Collection 2004 10:32 Yes
011 Tempest Cruel Brother Shapeshifter 2003 10:03 Yes
011 The Corries Cruel Brother Those Wild Corries + Kishmul's Galley 1996 3:37 Yes
011 The Corries Cruel Brother The Best Folk 1969 3:38 Yes
011 The Corries Cruel Brother Spotlight on the Corries 1977 3:30 Yes
011 The Gaugers The Cruel Brother Ancient Celtic Roots 1996 4:20 Yes
011 The Gaugers The Cruel Brother Beware of the Aberdonian 2001
No
011 The Gaugers The Cruel Brother Celtic Reflections 1998
No
011 The Gaugers The Cruel Brother Reg Hall Archive 1953-1977 7:06 Yes
011 The Songwainers The Three Knights The Songwainers 1971 1:49 Yes
011 The Tannahill Weavers The Cruel Brither Live & in Session 2007 3:24 Yes
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Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
11. THE CRUEL BROTHER
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 431 (trace) / Brown Coll / Haun, Cocke Cnty, 87 / JAFL, XXVIII, 300 / Pound, Am Bids Sgs, 21 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplchns, #20 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplcbns, I, 36.
Local Titles: The Cruel Brother, The Stabbed Sister.
Story Types: A: Three landlords woo a girl. The third wins her. He asks her father and mother for permission to marry her, but forgets the brother. As a result, the brother, John, stabs her to death as she mounts her horse to go to the wedding. The ending, like that of Edward, is a testament in which John is cursed.
Examples: Haun, SharpK (A).
B: The story is similar to that of Type A, except that the brother's permission seems to be obtained, and the murder to be instigated by the brother's wife. Examples: Pound.
Discussion: Both story types appear in Child (See A, B, etc.), but as is usually the case the American texts are shorter. Sharp (SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, I, 412) points out that his North Carolina version originated in the west of England.
For a treatment of the intrafamily murder ballads and the place of the brother in the house, see Flanders, New Gn Mt Sgstr, 94. The suggestion of incest (Type B) may well be behind this song, The Two Brothers (49), and a few other Child stories.
The common American refrain, "rose smells sweet and gay", is probably a derivative of one of the British "rose" burdens (See Child A, F, I K).
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